Rest Day, Again

I don’t know if France has gotten prettier or if our new TV just lets us see it better, but the first two weeks of the Tour de France have been wonderful to watch. As I did on the first rest day, here’s my thoughts on the Tour so far:

• Thor Hushovd is amazing. His persuit and breakaway win over the top of the Col d’Aubisque was about the last thing I would have expected from him. I felt bad for Jeremy Roy, who worked so hard and looked like he was going to clinch the first French stage win of this year’s race, but Thor was just fantastic to watch.
• Thomas Voeckler continues to do the yellow jersey proud. He’s climbing with the best in the world right now. I don’t think he’ll be able to continue that in the Alps, but we’ll just have to see.
• I still think this could be Cadel Evans’ year. The Schleck brothers both look good, but I believe Cadel can time-trial better than either of them. Basso, Cunego, and Contador have lost enough time that I don’t think any of them will top the podium in Paris. If Cadel goes into Saturday’s time trial less than twenty seconds back from either of the Luxembourgers, I’m predicting the first Australian winner of the Tour.
• So much for my fearless prediction that Philippe Gilbert had a shot at green. Mark Cavendish’s lead isn’t insurmountable, but Gilbert will need be in a lot of breakaways over the next few days to make up ground. If Cavo makes it through the next few days, we could see him take win number twenty and sew up the green jersey on the Champs-Élysées.

Six stages to go. Thursday’s and Friday’s should be absolutely insane, but any one of them could turn the whole race upside down. I love this sport.



Fitness: One Hundred Pushups, Week 1, Day 1 (6-6-4-4-12)
Sun, Moon, and Stars: 351 words, 330 seven-day average, 261 average, 28717 total, 1283 to go for the week

Comments

[chiaroscuro]

Paul, you will love roland barthes' essay on the tour the france as modern epic.
I can't find the full text but you can have a look here.. http://books.google.com/books?id=TZ2ZOeDWHEQC&lpg=PA79&ots=Qr2NhuFF7K&dq=roland%20barthes%20tour%20de%20france&pg=PA79#v=onepage&q=roland%20barthes%20tour%20de%20france&f=false